Former Congressman Joseph Early dies

Former U.S. Rep. Joseph D. Early died this morning, surrounded by his family. The Worcester Democrat, 79, served in Congress from 1975 to 1993.

By Shaun Sutner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Former U.S. Rep. Joseph D. Early, who died today after a brief illness, was remembered as a “man of the people,” who was fiercely dedicated to his district, its residents and his large family.

The Worcester Democrat, 79, served in the House of Representatives from 1975 to 1993, rising to high-ranking positions on the House Appropriations Committee, which he used to help secure federal funds for a biotechnology park, civic center and airport in Worcester and the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in Grafton.

“Joe Early was an incredible public servant who fought tirelessly for working people. From championing economic development to his tireless advocacy for medical research, Joe Early was a man who truly made a difference,” U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, who has held Mr. Early's former seat since 1997, said in a statement. “Our community, our Commonwealth and our country are better because of him.”

His death was confirmed by Timothy J. Connolly, a spokesman for the late congressman's son, Joseph D. Early Jr., the Worcester district attorney.

Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray, a former Worcester mayor, said in a statement “My thoughts and prayers are with the Early family as we mourn the loss of former Massachusetts Congressman Joe Early. Joe was a tenacious advocate for both central Massachusetts and the Commonwealth.”

In 2002, Worcester's main post office was named in honor of Mr. Early, who had a stroke in 2000 while working on his son's unsuccessful campaign for the state Senate. He made a full recovery, according to his family.

A U.S. Navy veteran, Mr. Early was a former high school teacher and successful basketball coach in Central Massachusetts. He was a basketball star at the College of the Holy Cross, where he co-captained a team with Boston Celtics and NBA hall-of-famer Tommy Heinsohn.

Before being elected to Congress, Mr. Early served six terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, from 1963 to 1974.

As vice chairman of the Massachusetts House Ways and Means Committee, he helped obtain state financing for the University of Massachusetts Medical School and pushed to locate the school in Worcester.

“He was a very, very dedicated public servant who loved serving the public,” said Paul C. Nordberg, 66, of Auburn, who was Mr. Early's administrative assistant, or chief of staff, for 17 years. “He viewed the medical school back in the Legislature and when he served in Congress as a very promising adolescent and he was determined that it would mature into the great institution that it is.”

Mr. Early succeeded Harold D. Donahue in 1975 after winning a six-way Democratic primary. In the general election, he defeated Republican David J. Lionett by more than 17,000 votes.

Mr. Early was a consummate insider and master of budgets who could “deliver the dough,” as one 1980 profile of him put it.

While Mr. Early served in Washington over two decades, he came home to Worcester and his wife and children most weekends and held an open house for constituents nearly every Saturday morning at his downtown Worcester office, said Mr. Nordberg, his former top aide.

In the meantime, a converted Winnebago served him as a mobile office in the then much more compact and Worcester-centered 3rd Congressional District, which was redistricted by adding a large swath of Southeastern Massachusetts to it in 1992, Mr. Early's last year in Congress.

Mr. Early lost his seat that year to Peter I. Blute, a Shrewsbury Republican, after a House banking scandal.

Mr. Early, who shied away from the spotlight, drew national media coverage with a vehement speech on the House floor criticizing House Ethics Committee members who had singled out 22 congressmen, including Mr. Early, who had overdrawn accounts with the House bank.

Mr. Early was cleared of criminal wrongdoing four days before the 1992 election. In a four-way general election, he lost to Mr. Blute 50 percent to 44 percent.

Mr. Early won his first office as a state representative after winning a Democratic primary in 1962 by a narrow margin over a friend, lawyer Robert Kneeland. In the original count, Mr. Early bested Mr. Kneeland by 15 votes. A recount gave the election to Mr. Kneeland by one vote but then a judge invalidated the recount and made Mr. Early the winner.

Mr. Early was a guard on Holy Cross basketball teams in the 1950s, playing on the squad that won the National Invitational Tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York in 1954.

Longtime Worcester resident Bob Cousy, the Boston Celtics and Holy Cross basketball legend, was a friend of the late congressman, although Mr. Cousy played on the school's basketball team five or six years before Mr. Early.

Mr. Cousy, an NBA hall-of-famer, recalled Mr. Early and a group of other Holy Cross alumni helping raise money to pay off the mortgage of Frank Oftring, a former Holy Cross basketball teammate from Worcester who had died. The congressman allowed Mr. Cousy and the others to use his office to call fellow graduates.

“He helped people; that's all he ever did,” Mr. Cousy said. “He was a man of the people.”

A loyal and conservative-leaning Democrat, Mr. Early was a close friend of former Massachusetts Gov. Edward King, a fellow conservative Democrat. Mr. Early was also known for his responsiveness to organized labor and business interests alike, and for his ability to work with Republicans, if behind the scenes.

“I may have been a Republican and he, a Democrat, but we always got along very well and agreed more than we disagreed,” said former Worcester state Sen. Arthur E. Chase, who got to know Mr. Early during city elections. “He was a great congressman for the city of Worcester.”

During his first few terms, Mr. Early rented a tiny $500-a-month apartment on Capitol Hill with a congressman from Flint, Mich. “Neither he nor the other guy was wealthy,” Mr. Nordberg noted. Later, Mr. Early bought a town home on New Jersey Avenue, occupying one unit when he was in town and renting out the other two.

In a 1980 interview, Mr. Early said: “I represent half a million people. I work seven days a week, and I still don't get done half of what I want to get done.

“You see, I'm more interested in the ombudsman part of this job,” he said. “That's more important to me than re-election.”

He leaves his wife, the former Marilyn Powers, with whom he had seven children in addition to his son, Joseph Jr., the district attorney, and 23 grandchildren

Funeral arrangements were incomplete today.

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